The Israeli army announced this Sunday that it has discovered Hamas’s largest tunnel, about four kilometers long and 50 meters deep, in Erez, on the northern border of the Palestinian enclave.
“Millions of dollars were spent on this tunnel, hundreds of tons of cement and a lot of electricity. Instead of spending all that money, cement or electricity on hospitals, schools, housing or other needs of Gazans,” Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli army, said in statements in the tunnel.
The statements were made to a small group of media outlets, including the Spanish news agency EFE.
Hagari showed one of the tunnel’s exits and several meters inside, where the scale and solidity of this project, which took years to come to fruition, lay hidden beneath the sand.
This tunnel is considered one of the key structures that enabled attacks on Israeli territory, killing more than 1,200 and kidnapping 240 people.
“This was Yahya Sinwar’s best-kept secret until now, but we have discovered it and made it public.” Hagari said, referring to the head of the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Yahya Sinwar is believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7 attack, the largest ever massacre of civilians in Israel and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel claims that it was his brother Mohamed Sinwar who directed and supervised the construction of this tunnel and showed journalists videos recorded by the group that the Israeli army encountered during the ground offensive in the enclave, in which he is seen in a vehicle. circulates in the tunnel.
Although they have not officially confirmed this, Israeli aviation this week launched leaflets over the cities of Gaza and Khan Younis – the stronghold of the Sinwar family – offering financial rewards to Gaza residents for providing information on the whereabouts of senior Hamas commanders. .
Hagari has vowed to defeat Hamas and destroy the entire tunnel infrastructure where top commanders, including the Sinwar brothers, are believed to be hiding, although they are also likely to hold some of the 129 hostages who remain trapped in the enclave.
It is estimated that about twenty have already been killed.
“This is Hamas. It will take some time to defeat Hamas, but we will be able to capture Sinwar and the terrorists who took part in the October 7 attack. We will find them above or below ground (…) We have two missions in this war: destroy Hamas and rescue our hostages,” Hagari said.
The recently unveiled tunnel, in which numerous weapons have been found, is a key part of Hamas’ extensive tunnel network, equipped with reinforced concrete, electricity, ventilation, sewage, communications networks and roads for vehicular traffic.
The Israeli military assures that since the beginning of the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on October 27, numerous tunnels have been found under hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, such as Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City.
The exit mouth of this tunnel, with a diameter of more than three meters, was discovered in a huge hole dug by Israeli forces on the surface, just 400 meters from the Erez Pass, which connects the north of the Strip with Israel .
Source: DN
